The electoral district of Perth is a Legislative Assemblyelectorate in the state of Western Australia. Perth is named for the capital city of Western Australia whose central business district falls within its borders. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member having been elected in the inaugural 1890 elections of the Legislative Assembly.
Historically, the boundaries included a much smaller area. In 1911, it only covered the central business district and Northbridge, and in 1929, a section between Newcastle and Bulwer Streets was added. When it was recreated from parts of the abolished West Perth and East Perth districts at the 1961 redistribution,[3] the Perth electorate included all of West Perth and part of Kings Park, but its northern boundary only extended to Vincent Street, Hyde Park and the East Perth railway station. The 1972 redistribution[4] added part of West Leederville east of Kimberley Street, and extended the northern boundary to include southern Leederville and parts of North Perth and Mount Lawley. By 1982, it extended to Walcott Street, and the 1994 redistribution saw it extend well into the former seat of Mount Lawley.[5]
The 2007 redistribution, which came into effect at the 2008 election, removed Menora and parts of Mount Lawley northeast of Walcott Street, while including all of West Perth as well as Kings Park, which had previously been part of Nedlands.[6]
Demographics
As redistributions alter an electorate's area and demographic profile, the 2006 Census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on the boundaries prior to the redistribution is the main source of information on the electorate's current profile. At the 2006 census, the median age of the electorate's residents was 35 years, compared to 36 across metropolitan Perth—only 12.1% of the electorate's population (compared with 19.5%) were below 15, but the 25–54 age group was significantly greater.[7] Only 53.7% of its residents were born in Australia, compared to 61.5% in Perth, and much less of the remainder were from northwestern Europe (10.78% as against 13.93%). At home, significantly more electorate residents spoke Italian, Cantonese, Mandarin and Greek at home, and whilst the top three religions (Catholicism, no religion and Anglicanism) differed little from other parts of Perth, Buddhism and Eastern Orthodox adherents outnumbered those of the Uniting Church.[7] Only 36% were married compared to 49% across Perth, whilst only 47.7% of homes (compared to 67.2%) were fully owned or being purchased. The median income in the electorate was $606 compared with $513, and 49.5% of the electorate's workers were professionals or managers compared with 31.8%.[7]
In the 2007 redistribution, Menora, with a median income of $397 and a median age of 48, with 42.5% being 55 years or over, was removed, whilst West Perth, with a slightly larger population and a median income of $698 and a median age of 34, and a higher percentage of professionals and managers than the electorate's average, was added.[8][9]
The Australian Bureau of Statistics do not collect data on sexuality, but the electorate is home to a significant portion of Perth's gay community.[10][11] Perth's main gay venues, Connections Nightclub and the Court Hotel,[12] as well as events such as the Pride Parade and Fairday, are located in the electorate.[13]
History
The southern and eastern parts of the electorate, as seen from the air.
The electoral district of Perth was created as one of the initial 30 single-member districts, and one of only six in the Perth–Fremantle area.[14] Its first member, who was elected on 10 December 1890, was Dr Edward Scott, a doctor by training who had been elected as Mayor of Perth the previous year. He resigned in December 1891, and was replaced at the resulting by-election on 12 January 1892 by Thomas Molloy. Molloy became embroiled in a controversy regarding provision of state aid to private schools, which he and fellow Catholic MLAs Timothy Quinlan and Alfred Canning supported. The Catholic Vicar General, Father Anselm Bourke, established the Education Defence League with their assistance. However, the issue became a major one in the 1894 election amongst the voting public, and all three MLAs lost their seats, Molloy losing to George Randell, a prominent Congregationalist who had led the cause against state aid.[15] Randell became the Opposition Leader to PremierJohn Forrest, but stepped down from that role a year later in July 1895, and did not contest the 1897 election, which was won by a supporter of Forrest.[15]
In the 1901 election, after which the Oppositionists under George Leake were able to form a minority government, Frank Wilson, formerly the member for Canning, won the seat. After five months, the Leake government failed, and the governor eventually invited Alf Morgans of the Ministerial Party to form a government and appoint a six-member Ministry. Morgans appointed Wilson minister of mines and commissioner of railways on 21 November 1901. Until 1947, members of parliament who were appointed as ministers were required to resign their seat and recontest it at a ministerial by-election, which was normally a fairly non-eventful matter.[16] However, Leake and his allies contested the six by-elections with such organised campaigning that three of the six ministers, including Wilson, were defeated.[17]
A controversy erupted in 1933 upon the establishment of a Lotteries Commission, to which Mann, along with John Scaddan and Legislative Council member Alec Clydesdale, were appointed. Several profitable newspaper competitions, including that of The Sunday Times, were prohibited due to being thinly disguised forms of gambling. In response, a Citizens' Reform League was formed to defend the crosswords, and at the elections later that year, both Mann and Scaddan lost their seats[21]—with Perth being won by former Labor SenatorTed Needham, who was to hold the seat until its abolition at the 1950 election, and North Perth for the following three years until his retirement.[22] One sideline to Needham's campaigns was watchmaker and jeweller William Murray, who had placed a public notice in The West Australian on 28 October 1930 stating that Parliament "has become an out-of-date instrument for achieving the will of Anglo-Saxon peoples" and seeking names and addresses of anyone wishing to work towards overthrowing it—and then ran for election as a Nationalist in 1936 and 1943.[23]
The seat was re-established at the 1962 election with different boundaries[3]—the neighbouring seats of West Perth, East Perth and North Perth having all been abolished in the 1961 redistribution—and was won by Labor's Stanley Heal, the previous member for West Perth. He was defeated at the 1965 election by Peter Durack of the Liberal Country League, who was in turn defeated by Terry Burke in 1968.[24] Burke, the brother of Brian Burke who went on to serve as Premier from 1983 until 1988, went on to hold the seat for 19 years until 1987. He faced some high-profile Liberal opponents, including future Legislative Councillor Bob Pike in 1971, historian and author Hal G.P. Colebatch in 1977 and Olympic swimmer Peter Evans in 1986.
Burke resigned in 1987, and Labor's Dr Ian Alexander, a City of Perth councillor and town planner from the party's left faction, won the subsequent by-election on 9 May 1987. He spent much of his parliamentary time on Aboriginal issues, sustainability and the environment and the Northern Suburbs Transit System project. On 4 March 1991, Ian Alexander resigned from the Labor party citing "frequent breaches of the party's basic principles and platforms", and sat as an independent until the 1993 election.[25] Dr Alexander did not stand for election in 1993, and Labor's Diana Warnock, a former radio talk-show host, won the seat with 50.29% of the two-party-preferred vote against the Liberals' Hal G.P. Colebatch.
On 21 October 1999, Warnock announced her departure at the next election for personal reasons, and threw her support behind former Town of Vincent mayor John Hyde, a member of the Centre faction of the Labor Party who had the support of the Left faction and some Centre members of Parliament. However, the key Centre unions had backed former ministerial adviser Adele Farina for the post, and Labor's affirmative action policy for candidates in winnable seats meant that failing to pick a female candidate would risk sitting male MPs. A week later, the Centre faction openly split, with a breakaway group endorsing Hyde. On 5 November, Farina withdrew from the contest, leaving Hyde to be preselected unopposed ahead of the 2001 election.[26] He maintained the seat for Labor at the election, becoming the first openly gay man to sit in the Western Australian parliament.[11]
On 9 March 2013, Liberal candidate and City of Perth councillor Eleni Evangel defeated Hyde and Labor in an upset victory with a significant swing amid the Liberals' decisive victory that year, becoming the first Liberal member for Perth since the 1960s. However, Evangel was herself swept out four years later by Labor's John Carey, the mayor of the City of Vincent, amid the Liberals' collapse in the metropolitan area.
The Division of Swan is an Australian electoral division located in Western Australia.
The Electoral district of Brown Hill-Ivanhoe was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. It covered part of the Goldfields city of Boulder, near Kalgoorlie, and neighbouring mining areas. It was created at the 1911 redistribution out of the former seats of Brown Hill and Ivanhoe, and was first contested at the 1911 election. It was abolished in the 1948 redistribution, with its area split between the neighbouring electorates of Boulder and Hannans, taking effect from the 1950 election. The seat was a very safe one for the Labor Party.
The Division of Perth is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. It is named after Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, where the Division is located.
The Division of Pearce is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. It was created at the 1989 redistribution and named after George Pearce, the longest serving member of the Australian Senate, serving from 1901 to 1938. For most of its existence, Pearce was a hybrid urban-rural seat that covered Perth's outer northern suburbs before fanning inland from the Indian Ocean to take in portions of the Wheatbelt southeast, east and northeast of the capital. However, as of the 2021 redistribution, Pearce is largely coterminous with the City of Wanneroo in Perth's northern suburbs. It has had four members: Fred Chaney, Judi Moylan, Christian Porter, and Tracey Roberts. The first three were members of the Liberal Party, whereas Roberts, a former mayor of Wanneroo, is a member of the Labor Party.
Alfred Cove was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia. It was located in Perth's southern suburbs, and named after the riverside suburb of Alfred Cove.
The Electoral district of Victoria Park is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Victoria Park is named for the inner southeastern Perth suburb of Victoria Park, which falls within its borders.
The electoral district of Pilbara is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Pilbara is named for the region of Western Australia in which it is located. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member having been elected to the Second Parliament of the Legislative Assembly at the 1894 elections.
Cottesloe is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Cottesloe is named for the western Perth suburb of Cottesloe, which falls within its borders. Its previous member, Colin Barnett, was the 29th Premier of Western Australia. The current member, David Honey, was elected in a by-election after Barnett resigned in 2018.
Maylands is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Maylands is named for the inner northeastern Perth suburb of Maylands, which falls within its borders.
Nedlands is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Nedlands is named for the inner western Perth suburb of Nedlands, which falls within its borders.
Yokine was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia from 1996 to 2008. It was named for the northern Perth suburb of Yokine which fell within its borders. The last member for Yokine was Bob Kucera who held the seat for the Labor Party by a margin of 8.2%.
Collie-Preston is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. While the seat was known as Collie for just over a century of its existence as an electorate, the seat was known as South West Mining from 1901 to 1904, and Collie-Wellington from 2005 to 2008. It is named for the South West coal mining town of Collie. While historically a very safe seat for the Labor Party, redistributions in 1988 and 2007 due to increases in the quota for country seats which had historically been malapportioned resulted in the seat incorporating surrounding rural shires which were hostile to Labor and thereby becoming more marginal.
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 3 October 1911 to elect 50 members to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. The Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader John Scaddan, defeated the conservative Ministerialist government led by Premier Frank Wilson. In doing so, Scaddan achieved Labor's first absolute majority on the floor of the Assembly and, with 68% of the seats, set a record for Labor's biggest majority in Western Australia. The record would stand for nearly 106 years until Labor won 69% of seats at the 2017 election. The result came as something of a surprise to many commentators and particularly to the Ministerialists, as they went to an election for the first time as a single grouping backed by John Forrest's Western Australian Liberal League, under a new system of compulsory preferential voting and new electoral boundaries both of which had been passed by Parliament earlier in the year despite ardent Labor opposition.
This is a list of members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly between the 1901 election and the 1904 election, together known as the Fourth Parliament.
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 24 April 1901 to elect 50 members to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. It was the first election to take place since responsible government without the towering presence of Premier Sir John Forrest, who had left state politics two months earlier to enter the first Federal parliament representing the Division of Swan, and the first state parliamentary election to follow the enactment of women's suffrage in 1899.
Mount Lawley is an electorate in the state of Western Australia. Mount Lawley is named for the inner north-eastern Perth suburb of Mount Lawley, which falls within its borders.
The Electoral district of North Perth was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. The district was named for its location immediately to the north of the central business district of Perth.
The Electoral district of West Perth was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. The district was named for its location immediately to the west of the central business district of Perth.
The 2021 Western Australian state election was conducted on Saturday 13 March 2021 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 36 seats in the Legislative Council were up for election.
The 2025 Western Australian state election is scheduled to be held on 8 March 2025 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 37 seats in the Legislative Council will be up for election.
1 2 "Electoral Districts Act 1947-1955 - Order in Council". Western Australia Government Gazette. 14 December 1961. p.1961:3651-3702.
↑ "Electoral Districts Act 1947-1965 - Order in Council". Western Australia Government Gazette. 14 June 1972. p.1972:1833-1893.
↑ "Electoral Distributions Act 1947 - Division of the State into Six Electoral Regions and 57 Electoral Districts by the Electoral Distribution Commissioners". Western Australia Government Gazette. 28 November 1994. p.1994:6135-6327.
↑ Stoddart, Brian. (1981) "Sport and Society 1890–1940", in Stannage, p. 672.
↑ Black (1981), p.422. Also see Bolton, Geoffrey (1972). A fine country to starve in. University of Western Australia Press. pp.244–246. ISBN0-85564-061-8.
↑ Bolton, Geoffrey (1991). "Good name of Parliament". In Black, David (ed.). The house on the hill: A history of the Parliament of Western Australia 1832-1990. West Perth: Parliament of Western Australia. p.482. ISBN0-7309-3983-9.
↑ Black, David; Prescott, Valerie (1997). Election statistics, Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996. Perth: Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission. ISBN0-7309-8409-5.
↑ Humphries, David (6 March 1991). "WA's Labor sinks towards minority government". The Age. p.6. "Labor in trouble in the West". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 March 1991. p.14.
↑ Mallabone, Mark. "State Labor MP to call it quits", The West Australian, 22 October 1999, p.12; Burns, Anne. "Labor caught in battle of sexes", The West Australian, 22 October 1999, p.22; Burns, Anne. "Seat fight leads to new Labor factions", The West Australian, 28 October 1999, p.10; "ALP gets behind Hyde", The West Australian, 6 November 1999, p.6.
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